SUNNYSIDE, Wash. – As stated in a news brief from the US Department of Labor, Ostrom Mushroom Farms failed to pay farmworkers their required wage rate and failed to provide cooking facilities or offering three meals per day. These are all violations of the H-2A temporary agricultural program.
According to the briefing, when the workers arrived at their place of employment, they found that the housing listed in the job offer was unavailable. The employer placed the workers in a hotel where they had no access to a cooking facility or provided meals. The workers were forced to pay for meals daily.
The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division assessed $70,348 in civil money penalties due to the seriousness of the violations.
The division also found that the employer failed to obtain a pre-occupancy inspection of housing, failed to keep up-to-date records and shared pay stubs without the necessary information. This resulted in penalties of $1,227.
It was also reported that one worker paid a recruiter almost $10,000 for their visa. This added another civil money penalty for unlawful cost-shifting and for failing to prohibit cost-shifting in the labor contract, resulting in $3,067.
In the end, Ostrom Mushroom Farms was assessed with $74K in civil money penalties and $59K in back wages recovered for the unpaid wages of 62 employees.
As stated by the Wage and Hour Division Director, Thomas Silva, “Employers participating in the H-2A guest worker program must make sure that they provide housing as required, that housing is sanitary, that vehicles used to transport workers are safe and that workers are paid correctly for all hours they work.”
Silva continues by attesting, “Our nation depends on agricultural industry workers to feed our families, and we are committed to making certain industry employers fulfill their legal responsibilities.”
Ostrom Mushroom Farms operate on 43 acres of land in Sunnyside, Washington supplying grocers such as Safeway, Kroger, Trader Joe’s and food processors like the Food Services of America.
We reached out to Ostrom Mushroom Farms for comment and have not heard back.
